The event which took place on Friday, December 2, 2022, at D’Podium Event Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, recognised over 20 honourees from public relations consultancies, public and private sector practitioners, stakeholders, and the media in various categories.

According to the organisers, MTN received the best brand in storytelling award for its group-wide ‘What Are We Doing Today’ rebrand campaign for its excellent deployment of editorial content, and partnerships with content creators and influencers to drive conversations that reached over 22 million people and delivered outstanding outputs and outcomes for the telecommunications firm.

Funso Aina, Senior Manager, External Relations, MTN Nigeria, who received NIPR’s Best in Crisis Management award last year, was also recognised as the Most Influential PR Professional for the year 2022 by the Lagos state chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

MTN’s PR partner, BHM received four awards at  LaPRIGA’s 2022  awards ceremony: Best Supporter of PR, Agency of the Year, Rising PR Practitioner of the Year and PR Practitioner of the Year.

The awards were accorded in recognition of BHMs’ contributions towards scaling the growth and development of the industry by providing innovative solutions to further propel Africa for a more globalised approach to the practice of the public relations profession.

These awards are coming off the heels of MTN Nigeria and its consultancy’s 2022 Africa SABRE Awards for superior achievements in measurement and evaluation and stakeholder engagement for its public offer of ordinary shares to retail investors in December 2021.

The two projects, helmed by BHM, represented a period of improved government relations and financial growth for the company.

Commonly known as the Communications Industry Oscars, The LaPRIGA Awards is a prestigious high-profile event showcasing and recognizing excellence in public relations practice in the public and private sectors.

The awards will be presented at the Africa SABRE award ceremony on May 25, 2022, as part of the 2022 African Public Relations Conference. 

The SABRE Awards is an annual international competition that recognises outstanding work in the public relations industry across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The awards programme recognises superior achievement in branding, reputation and engagement and honours the work of communications professionals across EMEA.

The wins are in recognition of MTN Nigeria’s stellar Stakeholder Engagement and Superior Achievement in Measurement and Evaluation for its public offer of ordinary shares to retail investors in December 2021.

 The two projects, helmed by BHM represented a period of ensured improved government relations and financial growth for the company.

MTN Nigeria’s retail offer to sell up to 575 million of the company’s shares was the first in Nigeria to be delivered via a digital platform, Primary Offer. By leveraging technology, the company aimed to facilitate the maximum possible participation by Nigerian investors.

Upon announcement of the results of the public offer, it was revealed that there was an oversubscription of the shares by 139.47%, which led to the activation of the approved 15% greenshoe of an additional 86.25 million MTN Nigeria shares.

As a result, a total of 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted, comprising the 575 million Offer shares and the 86.25 million greenshoe.

In addition, 76% of successful applicants from the digital platform are women while 85% are youths under the age of 40.  

Speaking on behalf of the company, Chief Corporate Services Officer, MTN Nigeria, Tobechukwu Okigbo, said, “BHM’s recognition at the SABRE awards this year is a delight to us. The awards reinforce BHM & MTN’s commitment to best practice in communications and corporate affairs.”

“BHM won the awards based on campaigns they ran for MTN. It is a testament to our commitment to championing digital inclusion as a strategic driver for social and economic development in Nigeria. We will continue to work with our partners to create innovative solutions that accelerate our strategic objectives while delivering on our vision of leading the delivery of a bold new digital world in our markets and communities,” he concluded. 

The award makes MTN Nigeria the only Nigerian telecommunications company nominated at the 2022 SABRE EMEA Awards, receiving two nominations in the Capital Markets Communications and the Crisis Communications categories.

This year, the SABRE awards attracted more than 5,000 entries of public relations and marketing campaigns from across the globe and were judged by a panel of senior industry experts including Allan Kamau of Weber Shandwick, Bidemi Zakariyau of LSF PR, Carol Warui of Ogilvy Africa, Israel Opayemi of Chain Reactions Nigeria and Karena Crerar of Edelman South Africa, amongst others for Africa and Emily Gosen of Ketchum, Georgina Wolfson of Samsung, Ioana Gorganeanu of Mastercard, and Linnéa Rinäs of Amazon amongst others for the EMEA region. 

Speaking on the nominations, Paul Holmes, chair of the SABRE jury, said: “It is fair to say that we have never seen so much good work from so many firms, including international agencies with growing African operations, and indigenous firms from multiple markets.” 

“What we have seen over the past few years in Africa is the investment of large multinationals in the continent, but also a wave of African entrepreneurship that has seen local firms across the continent producing high-quality creative and driving impressive media coverage and social engagement for their clients,” he added.